Beijing is absolutely beautiful.
I know many of you will disagree, but remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I often wondered about the charm of this city. I fall in love easily with cities that have history and Beijing is no exception. At first sight, the gloomy, hazy weather added to the charm. I wish I could resist romanticising an impression like that, but that is just impossible. Although the first two days was a complete mad rush from one historical site to another, the rest of the trip was at a much slower and enjoyable pace. The first thing I notice is the immense porportions of which every foundation is laid here. Everything I saw was the largest, the oldest, the widest… the vastness of everything somewhat silences your thoughts. And all this was before I set foot upon the Forbidden City, which is about twenty times as jaw-dropping as Tiananmen Square. The rest of Beijing is spread out in vast clusters of tall buildings, intertwined with busy streets and six massive ring roads. The people here wear expressions that reflect the sky - a weary, soulless grey punctuated by little fingers of sunlight. They are friendly enough, and though they look weary, most of them seem to be content.. but what do I know?
I wish feverently that I spoke the language properly. I pass off as a local well enough, until someone throws a string of melodious phonetics at me. The language barrier is a bit of a challenge, but I got by with what little I know, and I found out that a smile and a grin translates well enough in any language.
On my fourth day, I attempt to explore the city on my own. A quick call to Dan, a friend of mine who is in Beijing, told me exactly where I should hit. I found a cabbie who was good fun, and on the way to Wangfujing, gave me the names of a dozen places I should visit. Unfortunately I don’t remember names in putonghua very well. I managed to find a Starbucks, and two days later a map with all the Starbucks outlets in Beijing marked out in green dots in a magazine for expats, which sorted out the lack-of-coffee-at-breakfast dilemma because in China, everyone drinks tea. I spent the day wandering around the streets and browsing around the many markets in Beijing, including Hong Qiao and Xiu Sui Jie not buying much except a box of Christmas tree ornaments. After soaking in the hustle and bustle of Beijing, I lost my urge to shop and instead, get snap happy with my camera.
People watching was also fun. I sat on the busy sidewalk of Wangfujing and sampled a local cigarette while watching endless masses of people walk past. At some point, I decided that I wanted a picture of myself there and approached a tourist (less chance of someone taking off with my camera). I asked if he would take a picture for me and he practically ran away before I could finish my sentence thinking I was a local peddler! Heh. A second attempt with a nice German couple was much more successful Surprisingly, I didn’t get lost and although I was forewarned by Dan not to break out in guangdonghua as the locals might have me for supper, I manage to find my way around with minimal fuss.
Wandering out alone is the best way to get to know a city. I learned how to get around easily enough without a map and my putonghua improved tenfold in as many hours.. as did my haggling skills! My only gripe is the lack of clean public toilets in Beijing… one of my more interesting experiences involved a facility with no doors and no flush, which was quite shitty.. literally. It was not my first. I have encountered the same thing in Shanghai and Shenzen before but it was still a nasty surprise.
The next day, we visited Chengde by coach. The four-hour bus ride was horrid, and by the time we got there I was starting to wonder if it was worth the journey. The Imperial Resort in Chengde was immense, again, the largest in the world. I sat by a bridge and wondered about the old days when the imperial entourage had to make its way to the resort from the Forbidden City, which spurred my imagination…as a result I was almost left behind I was glad to get back to the city after that.
Later on, as the rest of my group went to Tianjin, I stayed back in the city. At this stage, I was in love with Beijing. Not enough to want to move there permanently however, especially not after what I heard from Dan, but it would be interesting to live here for a couple of months. And, contrary to what my local guide informed me on the first day, there is nightlife in Beijing! There is a place called Bar Street, which is essentially a little walkway next to a small lake that is populated with nightspots. It is typically Chinese, with peddlers on the street and people dancing to waltzes on the lakefront. The bars play on the oriental theme, with beautiful interiors and red lighting. When I was there, there was an Absolut installation going on, which added to the charm! I wish I could have ordered an exotic cocktail and sat at one of the tables next to the lake, but it would be strange to have sat alone.
I wish I could have stayed on just a little longer — a week is hardly any time at all to get to know a city as large as Beijing. There is so much I have not seen and done. Sitting in Starbucks now*, it feels a little disorientating to be back in my routine. I wonder what the weather in Beijing is like today.
*Note: this was written yesterday Busy at work, again, been meaning to post this up with the pictures.
Some of the many, many pictures I took on my trip. If you’re wondering where I am, I’m behind the lens!
Guard at Tiananmen Square. All over Beijing I saw marching guards, mostly around the embassy areas. I got in trouble for taking a picture of another guard who was sitting down later on. Think it was because he was supposed to be standing up instead!
Memorial at Tiananmen Square. Am culturally ignorant, so don’t ask me specifically what this is for, but I am under the impression it is China’s version of Malaysia’s Tugu Negara for war heroes.
Forbidden at dawn… absolutely amazing!
Study of the doors at the Forbidden City. I love the details. I noticed similar or identical doors on a lot of the historical places I visited.. wonder what it signifies.
This used to be the grounds upon which no commoner can stand.
One of the ’smaller’ buildings at the Forbidden City. The whole entire place consists of 9999.5 rooms, of which if you slept in a different one each night from the day you were born, it would take you more than 27 years.
An old tree that stands in the gardens of the Forbidden City. I have a thing for old, gnarled branches… makes you wonder what it has seen.
This was just a random shot I took in the garden to test out the sepia filter on my camera. Turned out quite nice, actually… but I would’ve preferred a less saturated image.
One of my favourite pictures. We were just leaving the Forbidden City after walking around for 4 hours and I turned back to look out for my grandmother and saw this man standing there. I wonder what he was thinking as he stood there unmoving. Nice of him to give me enough time to set up this shot on Nik’s tripod.
Looking through one of the slits in the gates at another gate at the Temple of Heaven. This temple is the biggest place of worship of the heavens in the world and it was massive. You can just see the top of the temple in the background.
The infamous Great Wall. Mom and dad kicked my ass climbing this massive wonder. I only managed to drag my ass to the first watch tower because my asthma kicked in while they went all the way up. I took the slide down. It was essentially a skateboard-type thing you sit on and slide down a half-tube. After paying for my ride and getting on the board, I notice that the girl had given me two ticket stubs. One was for life insurance. How reassuring! I snapped this by resting the tripod on the outside of the wall and hoped for the best.. couldn’t really see what I was doing.
A cathedral in the middle of Wangfujing.. this was the only place the cabbie told me to check out that I actually remembered. It was built by one of the more recent dynasties and features amazing chinese detailing. The interior was quite grand as well.
A watch tower, I think, overlooking Tiananmen Square. We went there and they tried to sell us some fengshui figures. You get a nice view of the square from up there though, but that morning the winds were ice cold and I didn’t stand out there long.
The fever has begun! My grandma bought a tourist hat off a peddler for 4 Yuan (RM 2) with the olympics logo on it. Loads of construction going on around the whole city as well, rushing to finish before 2008. Being China, I don’t think that’s a problem!
Scenic view of the lake at the Imperial Resort in Chengde. The whole place was gorgeous, all 92 hectares of it! I think the whole mist thing added to the scene, when Nik went it was winter and he trekked across this very lake. We got to take a boat.
The Temple of Putuo (also known as Little Potala Temple) in Chengde. There is nothing little about this, as there are 300 steps to the top. From the top, you can see part of the Imperial Resort and the gold temple roof. It looks boring from the outside but on the inside there are some intricate chinese architectural structures. You can see where the Japanese scraped the gold off the tiles during an invasion from the top. This temple is a replica of the Potala Temple in Lhasa.
Sunset from the plane as we left Beijing. It looked even better than the picture but it’s hard to capture something from the inside of a window.
